Who needs a mayors daughter when I have you?
by Tcleo90
Summary: Kid blink has found the love of his life. But he doesn't even know her name! What happens when a horrible event brings them together? summary sucks, story is better
1. An unsatisfied meeting

It was starting to grow dark as the sun set behind the buildings of Manhattan as the young newsie began to walk back home. If you could call it a home. Living with 30 other newsies all crowded into one

small room with bunk beds lining the walls. The newsie began to pick up his pace as the clouds started to form, signaling a storm was coming. Kid Blink hurried into the newsboys lodging house, just as the rain

had started to fall. He silently went up the stairs, ignoring the cheerful welcomings of his friends and climbed into his bed atop of one of his best friends beds, Racetrack's. He lay there for what seemed to be hours.

He was replaying the events of the day in his mind over and over again until it was all he could think about.

~*~*~*~

He was standing in his usual selling spot, right outside the local flower shop when he saw her. She was walking down the street, in her stunning pale blue dress, which made her blue eyes seem to shine like

the sun. Her shoulder length brown hair bobbing up and down as she walked in his direction. He stood there watching her as she stopped a few feet away from him to look at the flowers. After a few minutes she

seemed to notice him staring and sent a smile his way. He quickly looked away as a blush crept across his face. He only turned back around when he felt a light tap on his shoulder. She stood there smiling up at

him. For a moment Blink thought that she would confess her love right then and there. But in reality she pulled out a penny from her pocket, and handed it to him. It took him a moment to realize what she was

doing. But then he understood and fumbled for a newspaper and handed it to her.

"Thank you sir" she said with another smile. He was starting to love her smiles.

"Y-your welcome miss" he stammered.

She gave him another quick smile as she turned around, already having her nose in the newspaper reading the latest going ons.

He sold the rest of his papers in a daze thinking about that girl. After selling all his papers he started heading to the lodging house. It was then he realized that he never asked for her name and that he may

never see her again. The thought made him sad. He ignored his fellow newsies in the hopes to be left alone.

~*~*~*~

The young girl walked the streets of New York in a search of a place to sleep. She couldn't afford a night's stay at the girls lodging house since she bought that newspaper from the boy with they eye patch.

She didn't know why she did it, but something about him made her want to be closer to him. She couldn't think of any other reason to go and talk to him then to buy a pape from him. So she did. And now, here

she is walking the streets at night looking for a place to stay.

"Gosh Tara, why are you so stupid" she muttered to herself "Letting yourself spend your money just to talk to a boy that I'll probably never see again". She continued her inner fight as she rounded the corner

and walked head first into someone.

"Oh I'm so sorry mister" she said as she raised herself off the ground.

Without saying a word, the man picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. "I think I should teach you to watch where your going little missy".

Tara let out a shriek as she was lifted off the ground. "LET ME GO" she screamed as she hit and punched his back.

To be continued.....(writers block hit)


	2. going to find out

~*~*~*~

"LET ME GO!"

Blink was jolted awake by this scream, along with half the other newsies. Mush jumped off his top bunk and skidded to a halt in front of the nearest window.

"It's to dark to be sure but I think there's two people out there" Mush commented as he squinted out into the darkness. Mush, Blink, Skittery, and Jack all ran down the stairs and into the cold dark streets. There

they found that Mush was right, there were two figures in the night. One was a young women and the other was an adult male. The guy had lifted the girl onto his shoulders and continued his walk in the

opposite direction of the alarmed newsies.

"SOMEONE HELP ME!" the girls screamed with terror as the man carried her away to god knows where.

"Mush, Skittery, get the girl and take her inside" Jack ordered "Blink and me will take care of the goon."

They all nodded, knowing that the man must not get away with the girl. **(AN: they are like crime fighters or something lol)** Skittery and Mush hid behind one of the buildings waiting for the girl to be released

while Jack and Blink ran towards him. The man who had still yet to take notice of any of the newsies was completely taken by surprise when he was suddenly knocked over by blink. Jack caught the girl before she

could hit the ground, and Mush and Skittery came running, knowing that was their cue to get the girl.

Mush began to reassure the young girl that everything would be fine and that they weren't going to hurt her and they proceeded to walk her into the lodging house.

~*~*~*~

Everything had happened in a blur. The man. The strange boys. She didn't know who they were, but she was glad that she was away from that evil man. She was blinded by the lights as they stepped into the

small building. It took her eyes a minute to adjust to the sudden change of light from utter darkness as she was ushered into a hard wooden chair. When she was finally able to see clearly she looked around and

saw about ten young boys all staring at her with worried expressions on their faces.

Tara Shrunk back into her chair, as she was worried what they were all going to do. This was understandable seeing as what just happened to her. All the occupants of the small living room could hear noises of

some sort of fight going on out side. Tara saw that two of the boys closest to the door ran outside, to help she had assumed.

Then all was quiet. No one said a word, Tara was waiting for them to speak and the boys were waiting for her to speak. This went on until the four boys that were outside finally returned.

~*~*~*~

The fight with the goon was a littler harder than Jack and I had expected. Not only was the man pretty large, he was quiet strong to. If it hadn't been for Racetrack and Pie Eater who came out to help, we might

not have won. As soon as we finished dragging the goon into a deserted ally way we all ran back inside. Jack went in first and went straight to the girl to talk to her. Pie Eater and Racetrack went inside and sat

down.

I walked into the lodging house last and closed the door behind me. When I turned around I couldn't see the girl, all I saw was Jack's back. After a few minutes of Jack talking to the girl and the rest of us straining

our ears to hear what he was saying, he stood up and turned around to us.

"Okay everyone listen up, this here is Tara, and she will be staying with us for the night, since she can't afford a night's stay at the girls lodging home" Jack informed us with his authority voice kicking in.

Everyone nodded accepting this as a reasonable answer and went off to do their own thing seeing as they all knew now that she was fine. Jack turned around again and started to talk to the girl Tara again and

they both got up and proceed up the stairs.

As she climbed the stairs, Blink noticed something about the girl. She was wearing a pale blue dress. And her hair was brown.

'No, it couldn't be' he thought to himself. 'Could it?'

With that Blink maneuvered his way around the newsies currently making their way back upstairs to go back to sleep after the nights events.

When he finally reached the top of the stairs Jack was stepping out of the room that was the room that Kloopman had aloud Tara to stay in for the night.

"Can I go in and see her?" Blink asked as he approached the door.

"not tonight Blink" jack sighed as he ran his hand through his hair, obviously tired, "she's pretty worn out and needs her sleep, but I'm sure she'll want to thank you, Race and Pie tomorrow." and with that Jack

led Blink back to the bunk room and told him to get some sleep.

~*~*~*~

I looked around the dark room and found one bed, a night stand, and a window.

"Well this is cozy" I said sarcastically as I made my way towards the bed.

'I guess I shouldn't be complaining though, they did let me stay here for the night' She thought as she settled into the bed and pulled the covers up toward her. They smelled horrible but she would have to deal

with it, at least until she could leave in the morning and go sell some papes so she can actually go back to the girls lodging house.

As she drifted off to sleep her mind was filled with thoughts of the man that tried to kidnap her.

~*~*~*~

_She was headed towards a building, she didn't know why she was headed there but she knew something was in there that she wanted. She kept her eyes on the building as if it would disappear if she looked away for one _

_second. All of a sudden, a pair of large hands grabbed her from behind and threw her over her shoulder. She called for help but no one would come to her rescue this time. She began to cry, knowing that she couldn't stop _

_what was going to happen. Sudden out of no where, she was thrown to the ground. She didn't know why, but she took this time to get away from the evil man. She scrambled to her feet and ran behind a building. When _

_she got around the corner, she peeked to the other side to make sure the man wasn't following her. What she saw next shocked her. There he was. Fighting the man that tried to take her away. He threw punch after _

_punch until the man fell to his knees unconscious. The boy stood there, his chest rising and falling hard from the lack of oxygen. She slowly came out of her hiding place and made her way slowly towards the boy. When he _

_spotted her, he smiled the most amazing smile she had ever seen. His blonde hair feel into his face and his blue eyes twinkled with relieve as he said:_

"_You're okay"._

"_Yea I am" She smiled, "but are you okay"?_

"_Ah don't worry about me, I'll be fine" with that he pulled her close and kissed her._

~*~*~*~

With that she woke with a start, not because of what just happened in her dream but because someone was calling her name and poking her.

"Tara, come on, its time to get up" a voice somewhere to Tara's left said.

Tara opened her eyes and saw a smiling Jack looking down at her.

"Hey sleepy head" at this it was her turn to smile.

"Hey Jack, what time is it anyway?" She asked with a yawn as she sat up in bed.

"Around 6:30am" he replied while sitting at the end of her bed.

The conversation continued as Tara got ready for the day ahead of her.

'_I can't believe he talked me into selling with him today.'_

After she was done, Jack and Tara headed down the stairs and headed towards the paper distribution office, together.

~*~*~*~

When Blink woke up and got ready, he walked to the paper office with rest of the newsies, all having fun and goofing off with another. Blink on the other hand, craned his neck to see if he could spot Tara. In his

search, he noticed that Jack was absent from the group as well.

'_Where are they?' _He continued his search, but with no success. As they neared the distribution office, he had given up looking, for now anyway. But he was determined that he would find her, and at least talk to

her.

Since their first "meeting" he has dreamt about her every night. He didn't know what it was about her that made her special, but he was going to find out.

~*~*~*~


	3. Finally

**SHOUTOUTS:**

**GDgirl1993 : thanks for being the first to review :) it actually helped me write faster, don't ask why, it just did so thank you :) **

~*~*~*~

*Jack's POV*

"'Latest Pictures of Scenes and incidents in the Philippine War.' Well this is a bad headline" Tara commented as they left the distribution office. **(AN: the headline was a real headline in 1899, sadly it was the **

**best one I could find lol)**

"Well as I always say, 'headlines don't sell papes, newsies sell papes'" I countered with a chuckle as I saw Tara obviously thinking hard of a 'new and improved' headline.

"Well that still doesn't help improve this stupid headline" She walked around to the nearest bench and started to read the article to think of ideas. I waited patiently as she did so, just enjoying the sights around

me. My eyes somehow drifted towards Tara and couldn't help let a small laugh escape my mouth.

"What are you laughing at?" Tara asked in an innocent tone while still deep in thought.

"Oh nothing, just you, you just look cute while deep in thought." At this Tara's checks flushed and a blush crept across her face while she looked down and continued to read the pape.

'_Did I really just say that?'_

"Well I think I have an idea now" She got up from her spot on the bench and turned towards me, waiting for me to move from my spot.

"Okay well let's hear it"

'_This should be fun' _I added in my head as she walked towards the hustle of people.

"THOUSANDS OUTRAGED BY THE LASTEST TRAGEDY IN THE WAR" **(AN: don't ask lol, it's the best I could come up with, if anyone has a better idea, PM it and if I like it I'll change it, thanks :D ) **at this, five

people came rushing up to Tara to buy a pape from her and quickly scanned the newspaper for the story. "Come on lets move, before they find out that's not the story."

The rest of the day went by quickly as we raced to see who could sell papers faster. '_This should be easy'._

**ONE HOUR LATER **

"How in the world did you beat me?"

"I guess I'm just special" and with that she skipped away towards the girls lodging house, where I had agreed to walk her back.

"I guess so" I said mostly to myself.

"What?" She asked as she turned back to face me.

"Nothing, lets just get you back to the lodging house" with that she nodded and we headed towards our destination.

~*~*~*~

"HOW COULD YOU GIVE MY BED AWAY TO SOMEONE ELSE!?!"

"Well Tara, when you didn't come back last night, at first I thought you couldn't afford it so you found another place to stay…but when you didn't come back this morning, I gave your bed away to someone that

needed it" Lillian, the girls lodging house owner stated.

"But Lillian, I'm here now, is there anything that you could do about it?"

"Honey you know how much I love you, but I can't just kick the poor young girl out onto the streets"

"But you're doing the same to me right now!"

"I'm sorry honey, but you're strong willed, you'll find someplace to go, but I hope you visit, you were the only thing that kept these girls together"

"Tara everything will be fine, I'm sure Kloopman with let you stay with us for now" Jack, who until that moment, I had forgot was still there, stated as he put a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive, now go on and get your stuff, I'll wait down here"

"Okay I'll be back soon"

~*~*~*~

"CLEO" suddenly, I was thrown to the ground in a bone crushing hug. All of the girls lodging house inhabitants rushed towards me and bombarded me with hugs and questions.

"What happened to you Cleo?"

"Where did you go?"

"Are you okay!?"

"Who is that boy downstairs?!?"

At this all further questioning stopped. They all crowded around the door and peered down the stairs at Jack.

"That's just Jack Kelly, he's the leader over at the newsboys lodging house"

They all started up on the questions again but this time I decided to ignore them and get my stuff together.

"Hey Cleo, I don't know how I'll run this place without you helping me" Checkers stated, my best friend here at the house and my co-leader.

"Oh checkers" We shared a hug "this won't be the last time you see me, I'll come to visit you girls here whenever I can"

"I just can't believe what Lillian did to you though"

"Yea I know but I'll survive"

"Well I know _YOU _will but how about me? Flicker and Watts are still fighting and won't talk to each other"

"Well tell me something I didn't know"

"Well they keep everyone up lately, as you know, and I don't think us girls can take it much longer"

"Well next time I come here, we'll have to think of a plan to get them to stop fighting then wont we"

"Yea I guess we will" She smiled as I gathered up the last of my belongings and headed towards the door. We shared one final hug, not wanting to let go but the moment had to end. Checkers helped me down

the stairs and handed the things she was carrying to Jack.

"You know you can come and visit me at the boys lodging house anytime you want"

"I'll be sure to come" she laughed to herself "especially when I need a break from keeping these girls in line"

We both laughed and Jack led me out the door and through the streets.

"Why did the girls back there call you Cleo?" Jack questioned as we turned the corner.

"Oh, well one time, when I was sick, I decided I wasn't going to do anything for myself and they had to do everything for me" I laughed quietly to myself at the memory as I continued, "and one of the girls, Kitty,

started to call me Cleopatra, as in Queen Cleopatra, because she didn't do anything for herself either"

"The name stuck?"

"Yea I guess so, they shortened it to Cleo, and even though it started out as a joke, I thought it was cute so I kept it"

"I like it, trust me, by tomorrow, everyone at the lodging house will start calling you Cleo"

"Oh okay" at that we both laughed. I was beginning to think that living with the news boys wouldn't be so bad.

~*~*~*~

As we entered the lodging house, I could tell that some of the boys were surprised to see me back carrying all my stuff.

Jack let me take my stuff and go put it in my room while he explained what was going on. As I rounded the corner at the top of the stairs, I ran into someone, dropping all my stuff.

"Oh I'm sorry"

~*~*~*~

"No it's my fault, I wasn't looking where I was walking"

As blink bent down to help pick up the persons belonging, he noticed that all the items on the ground belonged to a girl.

He looked up and sure enough, it was her. IT only took a minute for Tara to notice him not helping, and when she looked up, she gasped.

~*~*~*~

TO BE CONTINUED…… (Ha-ha cliffhanger)

**AN: Thank you everyone who's reading this story, I know it's taken me a long time to make them finally meet but I think the whole Jack issue will be fun to lay around with in the future. So tell me what you think and I hope you enjoy the coming chapters.**


	4. Real Meetings

~*~*~*~

I let out a small gasp at the sight of him. And I mentally kicked myself for doing so just a moment later.

'_He's gonna remember me and think I'm some sort of stalker or something, gosh why did it have to be him'_

Suddenly he bent down and started to pick up my belongings. And he was smiling the entire time.

'_Maybe he doesn't think I'm a stalker, he probably doesn't even remember me………yea that's it, he just thinks I'm some poor girl in need of a place to stay….perfect, just perfect' _I let out a sigh as we continued to pick up my belongings.

"I'm sorry about running into you like that though, it was completely my fault" I said for the tenth time as he continued to help me by carrying my stuff to my room.

He laughed quietly to himself. '_Weird' _and he entered my room, put my stuff on the bed turned around and stuck out his hand.

I stared at it for a moment wondering what in the world was making him act so strange.

"You're supposed to shake it" he smiled.

I smiled a little, and stuck out my hand. When our hands did finally touch, I felt a small tingle run up my arm.

~*~*~*~

I don't know what was making me act so strange, but I felt like I couldn't be myself around her, in the hopes that she wouldn't remember me. If she did, I felt as though any chance of getting to know her better was gone. When she touched my hand, it felt like I would explode.

She smiled up at me, the same way she did the first time I saw her. I couldn't help but smile at her.

"Do you want me to show you around?" I blurted out.

"Sure, that would be great thanks"

~*~*~*~

"This is Racetrack, Skittery, Boots, and Pie Eater" Blink pointed out.

"Hey Cleo, how bout you's and Blink pulls up a chair and join our little poker game" The boy Racetrack called out with a smirk.

"Say no" Blink whispered into my ear.

"No that's okay, maybe some other time though" I giggled at his obvious disappointment that he wouldn't be able to take our money.

"Some other time then" Race perked up a bit at the hope of 'some other time'.

"And over here is, Mush" Blink clapped Mush on the shoulder as he walked by, "this here is Specs, Dutchy, and Tumbler." Specs and Dutchy nodded towards me and smiled and Tumbler and Mush jumped up and headed my way. Mush with his hand extended wanting to shake my hand, and Tumbler just wanted to say hi.

"Nice to meet you miss Cleo" Mush beamed.

"Nice to meet you to Mush, I guess Jack told you all, my nickname huh?"

"Yea he sure did, and I think it's really nice" Tumbler piped in from behind Mush.

"Aw well thank you Tumbler, I think your names pretty awesome to"

He smiled and blushed and turned then walked away. We all stood there for a minute just wondering what just happened. And then Blink and Mush started laughing. After a minute, I joined in and we laughed for a moment until the door rushed open. Standing in the door way was Jack and two others, who I had yet to meet.

~*~*~*~

**AN: Hey I'm sorry it's so short, but I had writers block and I just wanted to update so you all could read it still. Any who I hope you enjoy it anyway even though it's short, if anyone has any ideas, PM it to me or put it in a review!**

**3**

**Tara **


	5. Budding Relationships

~*~*~*~

As Jack hurried along the streets, it became harder to keep up with him.

"Jack, slow down!" I yelled from 20 feet behind my best friend.

"Hurry up Davey, you and Les Have someone to meet at the lodging house" Jack called over his shoulder, as I pulled Les along trying to catch up to him.

"Who are we meeting again?" I questioned as we finally caught up to Jack.

"Cleo" was all he said, before he pushed open the door to the lodging house and saw everyone sitting in the main room. When Les saw 'Cleo', he ran up to her immediately.

It took me a second after Les to figure out why she looked so familiar, and the moment she spoke to Les, it dawned on me….It was Tara.

She let out a smile as soon as she saw Les and me. She hugged Les and they both made their way back toward the door where I stood.

"Well hello Mr. Jacobs" she said with a huge smile.

"It's always a pleasure Ms. McClellan" I responded, falling back into our old greeting habit.

She let out a small smile and hugged me, I returned the hug and as soon as we pulled away, I could feel everyone's eyes on the two of us. I guessed Tara could feel it to and turned toward Jack. Jack had a confused look on his face still standing right next to me with the door still open.

~*~*~*~

After I let go of David, I turned toward Jack sensing I needed to explain a little.

"You two know each other?" Jack asked after a moment.

"Yea, I met David and Les through their sister Sarah, when she and I used to work together at the factory" I stated as casual as I could.

We were all sitting upstairs on bunk beds. Jack, David, and Les on one bunk and me and Blink, who had followed us upstairs, sat on the bunk across from theirs.

"How long have you known each other?" Blink questioned.

"About two years…..right David?"

"Yea I think that's about right, Les had just turned seven when we met, and he's nine now, so yea about two years" David confirmed.

"That's what I thought" I said nodding my head.

"Well any way, now that that's all out of the way, what do you propose we do" Jack asked in as casual of manner as he could muster up.

"How 'bout Medda's" Blink suggested get excited just by the thought, he always loved going to Medda's.

"Sounds good to me, I'll go tell the rest of the guys and then we can go" Jack stated as he pulled David and Les up and they walked out of the room and down the stairs.

"So you've ever been to Medda's?" Blink questioned as soon as the other left the room.

"Once, me and Checker's went for her birthday"

"Checker's?"

"Oh yea, she's my second in command, I guess you could call her, back at the girls lodging house"

"Oh, I see now, so anyway, do you wanna go with me to Medda's tonight" Blink asked as he looked down at the ground.

It took me a second to comprehend what had just happened, but once I got over the shock I answered.

"I would love to Blink" At this, Blink's head shot up to look at me so fast I couldn't help but smile and laugh, he looked embarrassed at what he just did for a moment but soon joined in on the laughter.

We made our way down the stairs just as everyone was about to head out.

"You coming, guys?" Mush asked from the bottom of the stairs.

"Yep" Blink answered with a huge grin on his face.

I couldn't help but smile, his smiles were contagious, and I was starting to grow more attached to him every time he did something like that.

~*~*~*~

As we made our way down to Medda's, I was starting to learn everyone's names and making friends. And I even ran over to the girls lodging house with Blink and Mush to grab the girls so that they could come with us.

As the show came to an end, I could tell some relationships were starting to form.

Kitty and Racetrack were getting into a game of poker with Specs and Skittery, and Race was surprised that Kitty was beating him but was flirting with her none-the-less.

Watts and Snitch were laughing over some prank they had just pulled on Itey and were practically falling over each other from lack of oxygen.

Flicker, Who was Watts' twin sister, but couldn't be any more different, was sitting with David in the corner deep in conversation.

And to my surprise, Checkers and Jack were sitting at a table talking about the wonders of Santa Fe. In the short time that I have known him, he's mentioned Santa Fe at least four times, but Checkers seemed to be very interested in the subject. Or maybe just the person who was talking about Santa Fe, I couldn't quiet tell yet, but I was planning to find out.

And even Brooke, who was the toughest one of the girl newsies, was having fun with someone. It was no surprise to me that the former Brooklyn newsie gravitated to the only other Brooklyn newsie in the whole building, Spot Conlon. How he came to get there so fast was beyond me, but I was happy that Brooke and the other girls were having fun.

But they weren't the only ones that were having fun. Blink and I had gotten to know each other very well since we have met. Blink, Mush and I were sitting in one of the booths, Blink to my right and Mush to my left.

Mush and I have also learned a lot about each other and had become fast friends. I could tell that Blink was happy that we were all getting along.

Blink somehow and found his way to put his arm around my shoulders. At first I was shocked but I made no move to break free from his grasp and after a while I leaned into his side.

'_This night was better than I thought it would be'_

~*~*~*~

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'm sorry it took a while to update but I'm busy with summer school, gosh don't you just hate summer school (school in general to be exact) I know I do lol.**

**Anyway, thanks to all those who reviewed, I always feel better reading what you have to say about my stuff :) **

**Any who, tell me what you think and how you feel this story should progress, I think I have a good idea but it's not set in stone yet so any input would be great :)**

**Thanks**

**3**

**-Tara **


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